Number 8 in our 10 Celebrities & Sportsmen Who Are Also Sports Bettors series, comes rapper and Cash Money Records co-founder, Bryan ‘Birdman’ Williams.

Although Birdman is not the biggest in the world of rap, he is for sure one of the richest, with an estimated net worth of $100 million.

His label, Cash Money Records, has included the likes of Nicki Minaj, Drake and Lil Wayne over the years.

But the reason we’re talking about him is because, like a lot of celebrities, Birdman gambles way too much money on sports!

A RARITY IN THE SPORTS BETTING WORLD

Unlike a lot of the celebrities we’ve featured in our series and betting tipsters around the world, Birdman is more than happy to reveal his losses in the gambling arena.

Most notably was in 2011, when he bet $2 million on Lebron James’ Miami Heat in the NBA finals series.

That cost Williams a lot of ‘cash money’, as the Dallas Mavericks toppled the Heat to win their first ever NBA Championship.

But there’s a good chance that this wasn’t Birdman’s biggest loss in sports betting.

HIS $5 MILLION PUBLIC OFFER

Now we talk a lot about the importance of having a strategy in sports betting, whether that be taking a value bet or placing an arbitrage bet.

But it seems Birdman needs some work in this department, which was highlighted in 2012 when he tweeted the following:

“I like New ENGLaNd.my nephew play RB# 42.I'm Bet 5million 2 any n\*****.like tha Giants YMCMB.BabyMoney anybody kan Getit.”*

No, those are not grammatical mistakes, those were Birdman’s words. And as you can see, his betting strategy needs some serious work, especially when you’re willing to wager $5 million on a game, just because your nephew is in the team!

BUT DID HE PLACE THE $5 MILLION BET?

As we mentioned in our article on 50 Cent, Birdman offered to take this bet up with his fellow rapper.

But luckily for Williams, ‘Fiddy’ went the safer route, placing a much smaller stake of $1 million on the New York Giants to beat the Patriots.

Let’s hope for Birdman’s sake that he never found someone to place that $5 million bet with!

IN FLOYD HE TRUSTS

It might not sound like it but Williams has won some big bets in his time!

He had some success on Superbowl XLV, winning $1 million on the Green Bay Packers beating the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But overall, it seems like most of Birdman’s success in the gambling world has come from boxing, or just Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather, who we wrote about earlier in the series.

In 2010, Williams staked $4 million on the heavily favoured Floyd to beat Shane Mosley, giving him yet another $1 million profit.

But in 2015, Birdman went even bigger, saying he would bet $10 million on Mayweather to defeat Manny Pacquiao in the biggest boxing fight of all time.

The closing odds on Floyd to win were at roughly 1.50, meaning Birdman would’ve won $5 million if he did place the bet! Let’s hope he did!

Check out the other articles in our 10 Celebrities and Sportsmen Who Are Sports Bettors series on:

• Article 1: Michael Jordan, the ultimate example of NOT having a betting strategy
• Article 2: Ashton Kutcher, the 'dumb actor' who placed bets for the largest sports betting syndicate in America
• Article 3: Floyd Mayweather, successful sports bettor or more trash talk?
• Article 4: 50 Cent’s $750k bet that Floyd Mayweather couldn’t read a page of Harry Potter
• Article 5: Pete Rose, the illegal gambler who cost himself $100 million
• Article 6: Charlie Sheen, so addicted to gambling that he didn’t even care when he won a million dollar bet
• Article 7: Wayne Rooney, football legend and betting hypocrite
• Article 9: Charles Barkely’s horrible gambling philosophy, ‘lose hundreds of thousands, not millions’
• Article 10: Ben Affleck, the movie star who learnt how to count cards

Want to read about some other professional sports bettors or some of our customers who are on their way to becoming professional sports bettors too? Take a look at some of these videos/articles:

1. My Value Betting Journey from 1k to 2k
2. 10 People Who Got Rich From Sports Betting
3. Jonas Gjelstad Documentary Series - from $10k to $1m